Nearly 12 years ago in July 1999, ABC Nightline brought a “redesign the shopping cart” challenge to famed (and JESS3-beloved) product innovation shop IDEO. They also gave them just 5 days to do it in.

After having posted about some of the ingredients to success at JESS3 (see: You Are Only As Good As Your Last… and Why JESS3 is the Agency of the Future late last year), I am moved to again think about what it takes to continue to innovate, to come up with the unthinkable.

The video resurfaced on our radars thanks to Harry Brignull over on 90 Percent of Everything (see: Classic Interaction Design TV: IDEO Nightline Episode). It is like ESPN Classic, but for UX fans instead of sports fans.

Top 14 things to take away from the video — or more aptly put by the Nightline reporter “The Recipe for How Innovation Takes Place” includes…

1. “Your research and design skills are not limited to the web.” – Harry Brignull
2. A lot of hours.
3. An open mind.
4. A boss who demands fresh ideas be quirky and clash with his.
5. Chaos can be constructive.
6. Teamwork. A great deal of teamwork.
7. Project leaders can be deemed so because they are good with groups, not just because of seniority.
8. Build an eclectic team. Biologists, engineers, MBAs, linguists, designers, marketers, psychologists.
9. In a very innovative culture, you can’t have a very hierarchical structure of ‘here is the boss and here is the next one down and the next one down.’
10. Find real experts, don’t try to learn everything yourself.
11. One conversation at a time.
12. Encourage wild ideas.
13. Defer judgment.
14. Build on the ideas of others.

What ingredients would you add to this list? Anything you disagree with? Tweet, comment, Facebook it or email me directly to share!

UPDATE: Community additions list will start here…

1. “Execution. Innovation can only sustain itself when not only the atmosphere is set for new ideas, but it is also set up to execute on those ideas.” – Nate Taylor | @natejtaylor on Twitter (could not agree more with my social media ag buddy Nate!)

Tags: ideo, innovation, JESS3, leslie post, recipe